CHAPTER XII.
ON THE LIMITS OF LOUISIANA.
Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi, in 1542.—British Discoveries in 1654 and 1670.—French Expeditions.—De la Salle, in 1682.—Settlement in the Bay of St. Bernard, in 1685.—D’Iberville, in 1698.—Charter of Louis XIV. to Crozat, in 1712.—The Illinois annexed, in 1717, in the Grant to Law’s Mississippi Company.—The Treaty of Paris, in 1763.—Secret Treaty between France and Spain.—Louisiana ceded to Spain, in 1769.—Retroceded to France, in 1800, by the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso.—Transferred by Purchase to the United States, in 1803.—Discussions with Spain as to the Boundaries of Louisiana.—Grants by Charter only valid against other Nations upon Principles recognised by the Law of Nations.—Western Boundaries of Louisiana.—Evidence of Charters against the Grantors.—Conflict of Titles between France and England on the Ohio, between France and Spain on the Missouri.—Title of Great Britain by Treaties.—Extent of New France westwardly.—Escarbot’s Histoire de la Nouvelle France.—Map of 1757.—Jefferys’ History of the French Dominions in America.—Questionable Authority of Maps.
The Spaniards are entitled to claim for their countryman Hernando de Soto and his followers the merit of having first discovered the River Mississippi. About the same time that Vasquez de Coronado was despatched to explore the district which is supposed to correspond to the modern province of Sonora, in search of the great city of Cibola and the rich country of Quivira, the Viceroy Mendoza granted a commission to Soto for the discovery of Florida, which at that time was the general name for the countries on the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico. According to the Spanish accounts, Soto and his followers succeeded, in 1542, in marching across the continent from Apalache, to the great river (Mississippi,) and thence penetrated as far west as the Rio Negro. Soto himself, however, died at Guachoya, and his companions, having committed the body of their leader in a hollow tree to the river, descended the Mississippi in boats, and after a series of conflicts with the natives, succeeded in reaching the Mexican Gulf, under the guidance of Luis de Moscoso and Juan de Añasco. Thence they continued their voyage westward along the coast until they arrived at Panuco, which was the northernmost part of New Spain, being within a few miles of the sea, a little higher up the river than the modern Tampico. (Herrera, Decade iv., ch. vii. and x., British and Foreign State Papers, 1817-18, p. 427.)
The Spaniards, however, do not appear to have availed themselves of this discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi for the purpose of settlement. On the other hand, the northern branches of the river appear to have been first explored by subjects of other powers than Spain, in the latter portion of the seventeenth century. Mr. Greenhow (p. 277) has inserted an extract from Jefferys’ History of the French Dominions in America, published in 1754, to the effect that “the Mississippi, the chief of all the rivers of Louisiana, which it divides almost into two equal parts, was discovered by Colonel Wood, who spent almost ten years, or from 1654 to 1664, in searching its source, as also by Captain Bolt, in 1670.” No further particulars are given by Jefferys, but it may be observed that both the above persons were British subjects.
In the year 1678, the French Government determined upon an expedition to explore the western parts of New France, and to discover, if possible, a road to penetrate to the Spanish possessions in Mexico. In consequence, Louis XIV. issued letters patent to the Sieur de la Salle, to authorise him to execute this enterprise, which he commenced towards the end of the following year. It was not, however, till February 1682, that he reached the river Colbert or Mississippi, by following the course of the Illinois River. His voyage down the Mississippi was accomplished by the 7th of April following, and on the 9th, La Salle took formal possession, in the name of the French monarch, “of the country of Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. Louis, otherwise called Ohio, on the eastern side, and also above the River Colbert or Mississippi, and the rivers which discharge themselves into it, from its source in the country of the Kious or Nadiouessious, as far as its mouth at the sea, or Gulf of Mexico;” and “upon the assurance which they had received from all the natives through whose country they had passed, that they were the first Europeans who had descended or ascended the said river Colbert, they hereby protested against all those who may in future undertake to invade any or all of these countries, people, or lands above described, to the prejudice of the right of his Majesty, acquired by the consent of the nations herein named.”
The proces-verbal drawn up on this occasion, of which the above is an extract, which is preserved in the archives of the Department of the Marine at Paris, was first published by Mr. Jared Sparks of Boston, the well-known author of the Life of Washington, and may be found most readily in Mr. Falconer’s able treatise on the discovery of the Mississippi. La Salle, on his return to France, obtained authority to form a colony near the mouth of the Mississippi, but in his voyage outwards he miscalculated his course, and reached the coast far to the westward of that river. Here indeed, in 1685, he established a settlement in the Bay of St. Bernard, called by him the Bay of St. Louis, which is supposed by some to have been Matagorda Bay, by others to have been the Bay of Espiritu Santo. This colony met with great disasters; but the French Government did not abandon its object, and in 1698 we find that the illustrious Canadian d’Iberville entered the Mississippi, and established a settlement at about one hundred leagues from its mouth. Before 1710, many French settlements had been made on the banks of the great river, but it was not until 1712 that a royal charter was granted by the French King to Antoine Crozat, which is the earliest document relied upon to establish the limits of Louisiana, and which Mr. Greenhow has inserted in his work, (p. 277.)
“Nous avons par ces présentes, signés de notre main, établi, et établissons ledit Sieur Crozat, pour faire seul le commerce dans toutes les terres par nous possédées, et bornées par le Nouveau Mexique, et par celles des Anglais de la Caroline, tous les établissemens, forts, havres, rivières, et principalement le port et havre de l’isle Dauphine, appellée autrefois de Massacre, le fleuve St. Louis, autrefois appellée Mississippy, depuis le bord de la mer jusqu’aux Illinois, ensemble les rivières St. Philippe, autrefois appellée des Missourys, et St. Hierosme, autrefois appellée Ouabache, avec tous les pays, contrées, lacs dans les terres, et les rivières qui tombent directement ou indirectement dans cette partie du fleuve St. Louis. Voulons que les dites terres, contrées, fleuves, rivières et isles, soient et demeurent compris sous le nom du gouvernement de la Louisiane, qui sera dependant du gouvernement général de la Nouvelle France, auquel il demeurera subordonné; et voulons en outre que toutes les terres que nous possédons, depuis les Illinois, soient réunis, en tant que besoin est, au gouvernement général de la Nouvelle France, et en fassent partie: nous reservant néanmoins d’augmenter, si nous le jugeons à-propos, l’étendue du gouvernement du dit pays de Louisiane.”